But guess what? Al-Sisi was tremendously more thin-skinned than Mubarak and the junta decided that Mubarak had erred in allowing a margin of dissent. They went in a North Korean direction, outlawing all dissent.

Youssef’s comedy came in part from simply pointing out the fantastic beliefs espoused by government figures and their supporters, the narcissism, the illogic, the grandiosity. At one point al-Sisi announced that his military physicians had found a cure for AIDS. It is not clear why they fixed on that particular lie. In the announcement of the cure, the government spokesman mixed up DNA and RNA. Youssef, who is also a physician, said that if a medical student had made an error like that, he would be drummed out of medical school and that his village of origin would be placed on a blacklist such that no one else from there would ever be admitted to medical school again.

In 2014, Youssef got word that the government was coming for him. He threw some clothes in a suitcase and managed to fly out before a warrant was issued.

In Iran, Atena Farghadani was imprisoned for 18 months for putting out a political cartoon that slammed members of parliament for not paying attention to Iranian women’s rights, according to Nadja Sayej at Vice. Stand up comedy is not allowed.

Americans might have found it hard to believe that someone could be jailed for a stand-up routine making fun of the government. Governments are funny and the officials in them often deserve to be made fun of.

Mark Twain said, “Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.”

He soliloquized, “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

Samuel Clemens may have raised hackles, but no one wanted to jail him.

According to aides, in 2019 Trump watched a Saturday Night Live skit about himself and went ballistic. Asawin Suebsaeng at Yahoo News, who writes that it wasn’t the first time:

“It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side,’” Trump tweeted, long before he was banned from Twitter for inspiring a violent mob. “Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?”

Suebsaeng adds,

“According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump had asked advisers and lawyers in early 2019 about what the Federal Communications Commission, the courts systems, and—most confusingly to some Trump lieutenants—the Department of Justice could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers.”

Trump was under the impression that the “equal time” requirement applied to television political satire. It does not.

Trump labors under a plethora of misapprehensions.

His aides just fobbed him off, saying they would look into it. The only good thing about Trump was his short attention span.

But now that the Republican Party has been captured by his cult of personality and is rejiggering voting rights and election certification to accommodate Trump’s narcissistic fantasies, you have to worry at least a little bit about the future of freedom of speech if they get back into power.

There isn’t any doubt that Trump would like to rule as al-Sisi does in Egypt or Khamenei does in Iran, and that his acolytes and his cheerleaders at Fox Cable News would be perfectly all right with that.

——

Bonus Video:

Saturday Night Live: “Donald Trump Press Conference Cold Open – SNL”

FLAGSTAFF – Asgard, Wakanda, Xandar and other intergalactic empires are well-known to comic book fans, but a new comic is hoping to bring readers back to Earth to learn about Indigenous heroes.

Penned by Native American artists and writers, “Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices #1” was released Nov. 18, to the delight of Native Americans who feel underrepresented in the comic book universe.

The new release features several new Indigenous heroes and address their involvement in X-Men stories.

Keith Jim, a Navajo comic book artist who became interested in comics at an early age, is proud to see Native Americans breaking through into the superhero world.

“Sometimes I feel like we’re forgotten. We are still here, so it’s important to stand up,” said Jim, who drew the comic book episode “The Heroes” in 2018.

Jim said Native American comic book characters usually are depicted in stereotypical ways, as they are reduced to complementary or side roles and are shown in feathers and loin cloths.

Anthony Thibodeau, a curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona who specializes in Indian arts and culture, said this misrepresentation of Native Americans is evident in mainstream popular culture.

“Any character that was a non-white character, they were usually represented in a very stereotypical way,” Thibodeau said. “Either through their clothing, a lot of times how they talk or through their accent.”

Keith Jim, who drew the comic book episode “The Heroes” in 2018, says he sometimes feels as if Native Americans are forgotten. “We are still here, so it’s important to stand up.” (Photo courtesy of Keith Jim/KTJ1 Comics & Arts)

To eliminate these stereotypes, he said, it’s important that the Marvel comics are created by Native Americans.

“I think it is a good step,” Thibodeau said. “Especially having these writers and artists interpret these characters to bring a better sense of representation into mainstream pop culture than there has been.”

Thibodeau and Jim hope that the new Marvel comic book heroes, including Echo, Mirage and Silver Fox, will help tear down the misrepresentation of Indigenous people.

“I can’t wait for it to come out just to see how it should’ve been from the start, how Native Americans should have been represented from the start,” Jim said.

Cory Bushnell owns Cab Comics, the closest comic book store to the Navajo Nation, where the new Marvel comic will be sold.

“It’s something that we’re excited to have in the store and excited to help encourage people to know about,” Bushnell said. “It’s encouraging people to learn more.”

Bushnell and Jim both said that these new heroes will help Native Americans feel inspired. Kyle Charles, an Indigenous illustrator for “Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices,” already received support from Indigenous women for his depictions of the Marvel hero “Dani” Moonstar, a member of the Cheyenne Nation who was introduced in 1982.

“I hope they (women) get inspired or they feel empowered. I hope they get whatever they need out of it, even if it’s just to escape,” Charles said in an interview with the Canadian Press. “The most important thing to me is them seeing this and saying, ‘That’s me, I am that character.’”

Johnny Messiha is a Southern California native who expects to graduate in spring 2021 with his master’s degree in sports journalism. He has served as a commentator at the University of San Diego, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in communication studies.

McKenzie Allen-Charmley is originally from Alaska and expects to graduate in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in business. Aside from reporting for Cronkite News, she works in event production for Arizona PBS and at the JET Lab at the Cronkite School.

Via Cronkite News

Get Paul Jamiol’s latest book of political cartoons, Hatred Rising

Related Informed Comment Posting: “War Crimes: Israeli Snipers Kill Palestinian Nurse, Injure 100, at Gaza March of Return” .

Anderson Cooper (Alex Moffat) has an unexpected run-in with Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon).

[See also Trump as Stephen King’s ‘It’: Lashing out at Clinton, N. Korea – JC]

Saturday Night Live: “Kellywise”

More than 1,600 artworks were submitted to the “International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and his policies are the themes of an international cartoon contest organized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, with more than 1,600 artworks submitted to the “International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest,” PressTV reported.

Over 550 people from 75 countries sent cartoons to the contest, which began last Monday and will run for a week. The competition’s logo courted controversey as the “T” in Trumpism was positioned diagonally, apparently to depict a swastika.

Hadi Asadi, an Iranian cartoonist, took home first prize, receiving a US$1,500 award for his drawing of Trump donned in a jacket made of dollar bills, and a tie depicting the U.S. flag while he drooled over a stack of books that represent culture. His hair, flaming upward, partially blocks out a world map in the background.

“I wanted to emphasize the U.S. president’s money-mindedness and warmonger nature,” said Asadi.

Ali-Asghar Jafari, the contest’s director, said that the United States “is moving against Muslim countries, especially Iran.” He also emphasized that “it was difficult to prove U.S. brutality in the past, but Trump’s presence has made it easy.”

Another event organizer, Masud Shojaei-Tabatabai, noted that “the -ism in Trumpsim is a direct reference to racism and Nazism,” and that the exhibition is intended to highlight Trump’s misled policies within a satirical scope.

“This contest considers Trump as a symbol of U.S. capitalism and hegemony that many intellectuals compare with Nazism,” he said.

The Independent reported that other themes depicted in the contest included violence against women and wall building.

Via TeleSur

——

Related video added by Juan Cole:

TeleSur: “Artists Mock Trump in Iran Cartoon Competition”

“Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj took full advantage of Donald Trump’s absence by taking aim at the president and his administration during his monologue at the White House Correspondents’ dinner.”

Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj White House Correspondents’ Dinner full monologue

“There was an unexpected distraction for Professor Robert Kelly when he was being interviewed live on BBC News about South Korea. But he managed to keep his composure and complete the interview successfully.”

BBC: “Children interrupt BBC News interview – BBC News”

“Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon) take questions from the press (Bobby Moynihan, Mikey Day, Vanessa Bayer, Sasheer Zamata, Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney).”

SNL: “Sean Spicer Press Conference Cold Open – SNL”

“The whole world was watching for the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States: Donald J. Trump. Because we realize it’s better for us to get along, we decided to introduce our tiny country to him. In a way that will probably appeal to him the most.”

The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words